Singing Lullabies
by Shaille
Summary: Modern AU. They haven't seen each other for years; Elsa was fine living just by herself. But when a fatal accident occurs, a 17 year old Anna is forced to move in with her. This might just crush Elsa's whole world. [Elsanna incest]
1. Chapter 1: Anna

Hello! This is my first Frozen fanfiction and I'm kinda nervous.

A few **warnings** at first: this story will eventually contain incest. If you're put away by that - don't start reading. There will also be a lot of swearing and graphic descriptions of mature themes.

Great thanks to **Life is Elsanna **(/u/5445896/) for doing an amazing job with beta-reading this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen or any of its characters. If I did, the movie's ending would be... _different._

* * *

**Singing Lullabies**

Chapter 1: Anna

* * *

The young woman smashed her clenched fist into her jeans-clad thigh. The traffic jam was really starting to get on her nerves._  
_

She glanced out the side window, trying her best to ignore all the horns blaring around her. A deep, heavy sigh escaped her lungs at the mere thought of what she was about to do. She could see the airport from where she was now, and if there were no cars around to block her, she could probably get there in a matter of five minutes. Instead, she was stuck with what seemed like a billion other cars in the rush hour traffic jam. _They couldn't have chosen more perfect timing for Anna's arrival._

She gulped, then looked down at her hands which were gripping the steering wheel so tight that they had turned white.

_Anna's arrival._

She wasn't ready for this. True, she made sure to look ready, she even tried combing her unruly blonde mane of hair for the first time in a week. She had just settled for a simple braid to tame it down, and dressed properly. But, in reality, she was no more ready than a month ago. Ever since she came to know that Anna was, in fact, inevitably going to be here, she had dreaded the thought and tried to occupy her mind with _anything_ else.

But, there was no turning back now. Literally, she couldn't turn back now without leaving her car in the middle of the road. There was just no possible way she could get out of this, this shit she didn't even agree to. She pressed her forehead against her hands, trying to think of something else.

An airplane flew above her, successfully bringing her back to the only thought occupying her mind.

"What the hell do I say to her?"

Seriously, what does one tell a sister, whom they haven't seen nor talked to for eight years? _'Hey, it's so nice to see you! I chose not to for a couple of years because fuck you, that's why!'_

"Definitely not that."

_'Oh my, you've certainly grown since the last time I saw you!'_

"Of course she'd grown, you missed half of her teenage life, asshole!"

_'Hi.'_

She raised her head up and looked straight ahead, realizing that the infuriated honking coming from the car behind her, was aimed at her. She released the clutch and drove forward a few feet to fix the temporary gap in the never-ending line of vehicles. As she stopped, she threw her head against the headrest.

"Alright, 'hi' is a good start."

_'Hi, I'm Elsa. You will have to live with me now. I'm sorry.'_

* * *

It was roughly a month ago that she learned about the accident.

She was eating vanilla ice cream and vinegar crisps while sitting on the sofa in her apartment, watching one of those criminal/murder action-packed television series that she never paid much attention to. It was a Friday evening, a time she had 100% dedicated to herself and _only _herself. She could do whatever the hell she wanted to, and if the idea of pouring ketchup into a bowl of melted vanilla flavored creamy-ness came to her mind, she could just as well do it. Nobody could judge her when she was in her safe spot on the sofa.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Usually she would just ignore it, but something told her that she should answer it this time.

That is, if she could find the damned thing.

She jumped out from underneath the soft blanket, almost causing the contents of her bowl to spill onto the carpet.

Thankfully, the only droplet that managed to escape landed on her left sock; it was so much easier to wash a sock than it was to clean the very plushy white carpet. The buzzing came from somewhere beneath a pile of paperwork on the dining table and she ran over to it, fighting against time to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" she said, panting. She had answered it just as the last ringtone was about to end, she knew that.

The person on the other side of the line gasped, supposedly surprised that Elsa had, indeed, picked up the phone.

The blonde bent down to massage the toe she had hit on a wooden chair in her wild run for the table, wincing as she felt the pain pulsating under her fingertips. "Hello?"

"Uhm," a young, nasal female voice hesitated on the other end of the line. "Miss Elsa Arendelle?"

"Speaking." She straightened up, leaning against the table and reaching for the ashtray that had been set on a nearby stool.

"Miss Arendelle, I'm calling you on behalf of Kai Andersen, your parents' lawyer." The voice continued without introduction.

Elsa searched for a pack of cigarettes between the papers, not audibly responding.

"You may want to sit down."

"What is it?" The blonde was now holding the phone with her shoulder, while desperately trying to free a cigarette from the pack and put it in her mouth, while, at the same time, scanning the room for any sign of a lighter or a box of matches.

"Miss Arendelle," the voice hesitated once more, as Elsa lit the cigarette with the single match she found. "Your parents had an accident."

"An accident?"

"A fatal one, I'm afraid."

"Oh."

Now that caught her off-guard, so much so that she almost dropped her cigarette when the woman on the other end of the line continued to describe the details of the accident.

Turned out, her parents' yacht got caught up in a storm. More than half the people who were on-board drowned, including the Arendelles.

Elsa's eyes widened in shock as another thought entered her mind.

"My sister!" She blurted out, cutting the woman's sentence off so suddenly that she didn't even hear her at first.

"Excuse me?"

"My sister, Anna. Is she - was she with them?"

"Uhm, no, Miss Arendelle." The Woman seemed surprised with her question. "Your sister is currently staying with a family friend, Mister Weselton..."

Elsa sighed, relieved.

"When did it happen?"

"Two days ago. The funeral is scheduled for Monday."

"Is that all?"

"N-no." The woman stuttered, bewildered by Elsa's indifference. "A set of documents will be mailed to your lawyer as soon as you give us their name."

"A _lawyer_?" She didn't have a lawyer. She never had the need to have a lawyer. "What set of documents?"

"The testament," the voice answered.

Elsa couldn't help the snort that escaped her. She wouldn't expect her parents to include her name in that.

"And the court-ordered guardianship papers."

"The _what_?" She blurted out, surprised.

"Documents that you need to sign in order to become your sister's legal guardian."

She dropped the cigarette this time.

"N-no, no, I can't be _that_," she was talking quickly, tugging nervously at her hoodie. Her palms were sweating and she finally had to sit down on the stool. "T-there's no possible way, I'm not fit for bringing up a _kid_, I work long hours and I couldn't stay home with her for enough time. She could get harmed in a way or another, it's just not-"

"_Miss Arendelle_," the blonde heard the woman's irritated voice and realized that she had been trying to stop her word vomit for some time now. "Miss Arendelle, your sister is seventeen years old."

Elsa gulped. _Yes, of course Anna was seventeen. God, the last memory I have of her, she was still a little girl playing with dolls. _"Yes, she is." She agreed, pinching the bridge of her nose in a futile attempt to calm down. "But then, Anna's in the States while I'm-"

"Miss Arendelle, this is the best option we can provide for your sister, especially in such a _hard_ situation. She will stay with Mister Weselton for as long as is needed to finish all the paperwork, but that shouldn't take too much time considering you are her _closest_ family member."

* * *

"They didn't even tell me that our grandmother died a couple of years ago."

She looked up and straight ahead, above the line of cars before her. At this rate, she was bound to be late for Anna's arrival at the airport, and smashing her fists into the steering wheel didn't help at all. She was thinking of the possibilities over and over in her head. Truth be told, she wasn't even sure how her sister looked like now. She would probably recognize her upon closer inspection of her face, but from afar... in a crowd of people...

She hadn't spoken with her parents for eight years now, ever since she left her house to live with her uncle in London. Anna was nine then, which means that the last memory of Elsa in her head was that of a rebellious sixteen year old girl in loose jeans and hoodies. Well, that didn't change much, but would she fail to know which of the redheads Anna is?

_'Would Anna recognize me?'_

Of course she wouldn't. Elsa wouldn't be surprised if her parents forced the girl to believe that Elsa was actually just a part of her imagination and not a real person, and that she left her because Anna was growing up and didn't need an _imaginary_ friend anymore.

She realized that she had been staring at a ticket machine at the entrance to the airport parking lot and frowned. She was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice when she instinctively turned from the jammed road. She rolled her window down and caught the piece of paper between two extended fingers. The barrier raised up and she was allowed to drive through the gate to find a decent parking spot.

* * *

She had been sitting in an uncomfortable chair for two hours now.

_Of course _Anna's flight would be delayed, there was no force in the universe that could keep that from happening.

Elsa managed to get to the airport just in time for the scheduled arrival, only to read the announcement stating the estimated delay was reaching up to three hours.

She had already ate a candy bar from the vending machine and was finishing the second can of some kind of a cheap, far too sweet, and otherwise almost flavor-less lime soda. The arrivals gate opened every now and then, forcing her to look up from her partially lying position. Another crown of Asian people passed through the sliding door and Elsa threw her head back, staring emotionlessly into the lamps hanging far above her on the airport ceiling. It was an agony to wait, she would gladly be over with the awkwardness as soon as possible. Good thing was, if this was going to take any longer, they wouldn't get caught in the traffic jams on the way back to her apartment.

The tiny one bedroom apartment that was barely enough for Elsa alone.

This was far worse than she wanted to believe. She mentally scolded herself for agreeing to such a thing, then realized that there wasn't anything else that she could have done. After all, Anna was her sister. She couldn't just leave her alone. The girl should be eighteen in a little bit over six months if she remembered her birthday correctly. Elsa could sleep on the sofa for a few months, not a big deal.

Her back ached already and she wasn't sure if the pain came from the uncomfortable chair or the mere thought of sleeping on the damned couch.

She groaned, putting her hands over her face. _This shit should be over already._

"Elsa?"

A quiet, sweet voice reached her ears and she froze, her fingers tangled in her bangs. She wanted to snap her eyes open, but it felt like her eyelids were so heavy that they forced a slow-motion contraction of the muscles.

A girl was standing before here, just a few feet away. Her hands were folded over her stomach and she was biting on her lower lip in the cutest of ways, as the light of the airport lamps sparkled in her fiery hair.

Elsa realized the awkward position she was in and shot up from the chair, straightening herself and tugging at the bottom of her dark gray hoodie that had rolled up to expose the pale skin of her abdomen. She looked her sister over, noticing that Anna was shorter than her by a few good inches. She was wearing a dark brown leather jacket over a dark teal, v-neck sweater tunic that reached just below her black leggings clad hips, and completed with flat-heeled boots the same color as the jacket. Her hair was put up in cute pig-tail braids that reached over her shoulders and down the gentle curve of her breasts. She wore the faintest of make-up, just highlighting the vibrant turquoise of her eyes.

All in all, she looked pretty much _gorgeous_. Not at all the little awkward creature Elsa remembered from all those years ago.

"Anna," she managed to finally speak, after a few seconds of staring. She raised her arms up and then, in a weird, unnatural motion, decided to fold them at her chest. Normal sisters would probably hug now, but then again, there wasn't many things that were normal about their relationship.

Anna seemed to wonder the same thing, but she decided on moving her hands from her stomach to place them inside her jacket pockets, then proceeded to stare at the floor.

Elsa swept her bangs aside nervously, her now sweaty fingers tangling with her hair ungracefully. She coughed to somehow cover the uneasiness in her voice. "You- you've grown. You look pretty."

"Thanks."

"Is that, uh," Elsa pointed at the cart standing beside Anna, holding a few brightly colored bags and suitcases. "Is that all? I mean, your luggage."

"Yeah."

Elsa frowned. She didn't expect Anna to jump into her arms - to be honest, she didn't know how she'd react if Anna did jump into her arms - but if they had to live together, she would at least like the girl to stop looking at the ground all the time. And maybe use actual communication instead of spitting out syllables.

The blonde walked over to the cart and she grabbed the handle, about to give the unmercifully heavy thing a push. She was about to move as she caught a glimpse of the large green eyes, before they quickly flickered to the bags in the cart.

Anna wasn't just staring at the ground. She was avoiding Elsa's eyes.

"Alright," the older female said, pushing the cart before her as she slowly made her way to the exit across the white tiled floor. "Let's just get to the car and get out of here."

* * *

The ride home was, what Elsa could undoubtedly call, the most uncomfortable ride in her life. She was used to lack of verbal communication as she drove, but then again, she was used to driving alone. When those rare occasions occurred that she had a real, living _person_ sitting in the passenger seat, instead of a tray of take out and coffee, the company would never shut up.

Anna, however, decided to keep silent for the whole ride. At least it was a quick one, as the traffic jams were long gone.

They waited for the elevator in Elsa's apartment building, Elsa keeping up a straight face as she struggled with the bags in her hands. Anna had offered to help her, but, for some weird reason, Elsa's mind decided it was the right thing to do to carry _all _of her sister's luggage by herself; all five bags, that is. She allowed Anna to take the tiny backpack she had on board with her.

The metal sliding door of the elevator opened with a ding and Anna walked in, aiming for a corner, as Elsa and the bags took up the rest of the available space. Thankfully, no one wanted to go with them, or the elevator would either fall down to the basement or _implode_ from the sheer mass and volume of Anna's belongings cramped up in such a tiny place. Elsa somehow managed to hit the button of her desired floor with the tip of her elbow, feeling her muscles almost give in. Her back ached and her shoulders felt like burning underneath the straps of the bags. She closed her eyes and waited, all of her existence focused on standing up and surviving.

Another ding made her open them again, and she rolled out of the elevator, Anna following her with an unreadable expression on her face.

She eyed the hall suspiciously. It was long and narrow, with sets of identical dark wooden doors on either side of it. The number opposite the elevator read '807' and Anna immediately started to wonder how many flats were in the building. Obviously there couldn't be as much as eight hundred, but then again, this couldn't be the eighth floor, as she could swear she saw the blonde hitting the '9' button. She quickly made her way over to a window at the end of the corridor and looked out into the night. A few cars drove past the building on the ground, _far_ below Anna. Whichever floor this was, it was certainly really high.

A clicking noise brought her attention to Elsa, whom was at the far right side of the corridor, as the other girl somehow managed to fish her keys out of her pants' pocket and unlock the door without even setting the bags on the ground. She kicked the door open and Anna walked up to her, curiously peeking inside the apartment. It was hard to see anything in the darkness, but she could make out the shape of a rather big couch in, what had to be, the living room. She followed the blonde inside, closing the door behind her.

"Could you turn the light on? The switch is just to your right."

She extended her right hand and felt the wall, but she couldn't find the switch. As she kept feeling for the switch, she heard the thuds of her bags being laid on the ground. Finally, with a loud click, she switched the light on.

They were standing in a short, narrow corridor that ended with a huge-ass mirror directly opposite the front door. There was a door to Anna's right that, judging by the window pane with snowflake decorations and the door vent, had to lead to the bathroom. She could see the living room clearly now, and started scanning the room. It had a black leather couch in the middle of the room, on a plush white carpet that reached from the modern glass-top coffee table up to a set of drawers with a huge flat-screen television on top. She could also spot a glass door on the other side of the living room, which must lead to the balcony.

There was an open-concept kitchen to her left, that was accessible from both the corridor and the living room, complete with both an overwhelmingly big - considering the apartment was rather small, this qualified as big - dining table and a bar-style kitchen island.

At the right end of this corridor, there was another door, in which Anna could only guess led to Elsa's bedroom.

"You'll have to stay in my bedroom, I guess. I'm sorry for, uh, that."

"What?" Anna snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Elsa incredulously.

The blonde had an apologetic smile on her face and her hands were in her pockets now. She was uncomfortable.

"Where will you stay then?'

"Me?" She looked genuinely surprised. "I- ah, I'll just sleep on the sofa."

"What, wait, no!" Anna advanced to her, startling Elsa, and forcing the older girl to step back until her shoulders hit the wall. "I don't want to make you sleep on the couch in your _own house_."

"But it's fine," Elsa said in a defensive tone, raising her hands up to her chest, as if afraid Anna would _stab _her in a moment.

Honestly, the girl just went from almost ignoring the blonde to practically attacking her.

"I've slept on it thousands of times before, it's, uh, kinda comfortable, don't worry."

The redhead's eyes betrayed her, showing the blonde that she didn't entirely trust her, but she didn't press on. Instead, she stepped back from the older girl, who visibly relaxed as soon as they got some distance between them.

Shaking her head, Anna took her boots off and placed them by a small dresser in the corridor, next to a pair of her sister's sneakers. She raised her eyebrows in wonder at how all the shoes - surprisingly, there were no high heels - were arranged in a neat row, and she instantly imagined the blonde putting a _ruler_ to the noses of the shoes to make sure none exceeded past an invisible line.

Not waiting for an invitation, she passed Elsa in the corridor and entered the living room. She didn't notice it before, but the white walls were completely bare, which coupled with the cold, dim lighting, gave Anna the creepiest of feelings that a fairly normal living room could give. The dark, wooden floor was surprisingly warm against her bare feet, and she could guess there were hot water pipes beneath.

She continued to walk until her toes touched the fluffy white fur of the carpet, which was even softer than it looked to her before. She sat down on the couch and closed her eyes, feeling the burning of tears against her eyelids.

"Are you hungry?"

Elsa was leaning against the doorway, her hands crossed over her chest. She was biting the inside of her cheek, and she was somehow cracking her fingers, hidden from the redhead's view by her arms.

Anna thought about it for a moment; the last time she ate was before her departure in the morning. She didn't feel hungry, though. She felt nervous, yes, nauseous maybe. It was as if something twisted itself around her stomach and didn't want to let go.

"No, thank you." she answered politely, earning a huff from the older girl as the blonde straightened up and went into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and took a bottle of milk out, then reached into one of the many cupboards for a white-striped glass. She poured the milk into it, and Anna felt her throat go dry.

"Alright, not hungry." Elsa looked like she was pondering something. "Tired? Bored? Thirsty?"

"I could use something to drink."

"You want some milk?"

"Well, uhm..." she considered her options. Milk was good, milk was nutritious and would serve as a substitute to the meal she was about to skip. The thought of milk now made her want to throw up, though. "Not really. How about some... uh, tea? Tea sounds nice, do you have some?"

Elsa raised her eyebrows, looking at the girl over her glass of milk. She set it down and wiped the milk-stache with the back of her hand.

"We're in England," she pointed out, causing Anna to make a confused face. The older girl just smiled and waved her hand, as if trying to sweep the thought away. "Never mind. Of course I have some tea."

* * *

Anna _was_ hungry, after all.

She couldn't fall asleep; well, she wasn't even that surprised, she had expected that one coming. She stared at the plain ceiling of Elsa's room - her room, for now - trying to count imaginary sheep, but they just wouldn't jump over the freaking fence. They only stood there, bleeting and looking at her like she was the black sheep of their society, some kind of lunatic who was imagining things because they couldn't fall asleep.

She shook her head and turned on her side, deeply breathing in. The sheets smelled faintly of lavender and musk, a scent that soothed her a bit, though it was a mix she would never expect. She missed home. She missed the hot, sunny California weather, and nights warm enough to be sleeping under a thin blanket - or even without it.

She tightly wrapped herself up in the thick covers, rubbing her cold feet together. How the hell was she supposed to fall asleep if she was freezing to death?

She abruptly got up and made her way over to one of her still-packed bags. Fiddling with the zipper for a while, she somehow managed to finally unzip it and put her hands inside, searching by touch in the pitch black darkness. Her hands grazed over various t-shirts and shorts, that she didn't think would come to much use after all, until she felt the soft, cotton fabric of her socks. She fished them out and untangled them from each other before quickly putting them on her feet. She frowned. It felt like capturing the cold inside of her socks.

Sighing, she leaned back against Elsa's double bed. It was cold, yeah, but it wasn't much colder sitting on the floor than lying under the covers. She rubbed her bare arms, cursing silently as she realized the thin, short sleeves strawberry print cotton nightgown that she had on was really unfit for the cold, English nights. She should probably avoid sleeping with wet hair if she didn't want to catch pneumonia, too.

She missed home a lot. She missed her parents a whole lot more.

She fought back the tears and got up, deciding that she was not falling asleep anytime soon. She paced around the dark room, considering what to do now; moving was keeping her warmer, so it was a good thing to do. Maybe it would even tire her to the point of falling down on the bed unconscious and just waiting for the morning to come.

She frowned again. It was Sunday tomorrow, if she got it all correctly. If she wouldn't manage to think something occupying to do up, things might come to the point where she'd have to spend the whole day at home with her sister.

_Elsa._

Anna shuddered. It wasn't that she disliked the blonde, she didn't even had much to dislike her for! She had barely known anything about the older girl, her parents never mentioned her when they were still around and even before Elsa went to England, Anna didn't remember seeing her that much.

_It was like she was never there to begin with._

Her stomach growled and Anna stopped her pacing. Right, she was _hungry_, after all.

* * *

The apartment was overwhelmingly quiet as she lied awake on the couch, excluding the constant buzzing of the fridge and the dripping of water in the bathroom every two minutes or so. She considered giving up and switching the lights on to read a book or watch television, as there were surely some cartoons still on at three in the morning, but she knew better than that. She had to force herself to sleep somehow, or the next day was going to be _shitty__. _And that's putting it light.

Her eyes were closed and she was battling with her body to not open them again. She tossed around for a few moments, trying to find a more comfortable position. This was it. This was the damned sofa that stopped her from falling asleep, she was more than sure of that. Stupid sitting furniture, getting uncomfortable as soon as you lay more than just your arse on them. She ended up lying flat on her stomach, with her face in the fluffy pillow, deeply breathing in its scent. The lavender always soothed her.

A soft rustling sound invaded her ears. She felt like a cat perched on the fence, scanning the area for any odd sounds. She could swear her ears _moved_ when the sound came again, but it still wasn't enough to get her face out of the pillow she was hugging. It was probably just a bird brushing against the balcony railing... well, an owl. A bat, perhaps. It could have been the radiator as well. They made the weirdest of sounds at the most inconvenient moments.

A splat followed the sounds, just like somebody put a hand to the wall with a rather great-

"Oof!"

Elsa sprang up from the couch, her eyes trying to pierce through the darkness of the room.

"Anna?" She asked, quietly.

A sort of weird moan answered, forcing her to immediately stand up and step out of her warm comforter. She hit the switch of a nearby standing lamp with her foot and was temporarily blinded by the light. She put a hand up to cover her eyes from the brightness and peaked through her parted fingers. From the looks of it, it appeared that her sister had hit a wall in the corridor.

"Are you alright?" she hurried over to the redhead, her eyes already adjusted to the light level of the room.

Anna was massaging her forehead vigorously, cheeks red from embarrassment.

"Yes, yeah, I'm fine," she muttered, looking down at her socks as Elsa's cold fingers circled around her wrist and pried her hand away to inspect the sore spot on her forehead.

The redhead could only hope it wouldn't leave a bruise. She cleared her throat as the blonde stepped back, pulling her hands away as soon as she was sure there was no bleeding wound to be take care of. Anna forced herself to look at her sister.

Elsa looked like she just saw a monster crawl out of the toilet, with her hair down and messy, wearing an oversized black Batman t-shirt - which was slipping off of her right shoulder.

Anna looked at the ground again. "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"It's fine, I wasn't sleeping anyway," she sighed, leaning against the wall and looking at the younger girl carefully. "And why weren't _you_?"

"It's embarrassing."

Elsa only stared at her.

"I got hungry."

"Oh," she kicked herself off the wall, smirking as she passed the younger girl on the way to the kitchen.

Anna stared in awe at her sister's bare feet as Elsa made her way across the cold tiles of the kitchen floor.

"I guess that's not that embarrassing, not at all. I told you to tell me if you wanted anything."

"Yeah, well, I didn't think you meant in the middle of the night."

"I didn't," she stopped in front of the fridge and sent Anna a serious look. "And mind you, I usually _try_ to sleep during the night... though, honestly, if I were sleeping now you wouldn't have woken me up if you hadn't hit that wall."

Anna huffed and said, "I didn't do it _on purpose_."

"Well, tonight you're excused, but I'm usually not nice when something disturbs my sleep."

She handed her a loaf of bread and a jar of fruit jam and headed back to the living room.

Anna frowned. "Thanks," she said, with a bit of hesitation in her voice. She could probably take a slice or two into her room and eat it there, not to disturb the blonde any more than she already did. Especially seeing that the older girl had already lied down on the couch, facing away from Anna.

Now, if only she could remember where her sister had shown her the plates were... or the knives... or anything, really. Anna sighed. This was even harder than she thought it would be.

"Sorry for bothering you."

"It's fine, really."

Anna gathered all the stuff she could find and moved in the direction of Elsa's - well, her, bedroom - as quietly as possible. She turned around to look at the blonde once more, but Elsa's face was already covered with her blanket. With another sigh, Anna pushed the door to the room open, as the light in the living room went out.

"Next time, try turning the light on, though. It helps a lot."

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for reading this chapter. Please leave a review if you liked it (or not) and if you have any ideas/suggestions/requests (I can't promise I'd fit everything in with the storyline, though). Stay tuned for the next update!


	2. Chapter 2: Sunday

Welcome back after this, uh, _short_ while. Thank you very much for all the reviews to the last chapter - if there were any questions in them, you will find the answers in the A/N at the end of this chapter :)

The **warnings** haven't changed; but if you're still here after the first chapter, you know what's up ahead!

Great thanks to the wonderful **Swords Divine Light** (/u/2343391/) for beta-reading this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Frozen or any of its characters. If I did, the movie's ending would be... _different._ Also, I don't own any of the brands mentioned in this chapter.

* * *

**Singing Lullabies**

Chapter 2: Sunday

* * *

Anna woke up with a groan.

She raised her head up from the soft pillow and took a good look around. The sun was barely up and the room was lit dimly by the little amount of daylight that managed to get through the dark clouds outside. The redhead rolled over on her back and ran a hand down her face; she certainly didn't sleep well.

One glance at the alarm clock on the bedside cabinet told her it was almost five in the morning. She groaned again. Waking up so early was slowly becoming a habit of hers. A _bad_ one.

_And on Sunday, too. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Elsa's probably still asleep._

Anna sat up on the bed, shivering immediately as the cold air in the room hit the exposed skin of her shoulders. She squinted her eyes to see anything in the dim light; she could make out the shape of the large wooden wardrobe on the wall opposite the bed. A desk was standing right beside it with a few items on top and on its other side there was a rather tall, broad bookcase. Just like in the living room, there was nothing on the walls in Elsa's bedroom. It was a little bit unsettling for the younger girl; she was used to having a lot of posters, photos, and paintings everywhere.

Deciding she was not going back to sleep anytime soon, the redhead stood up and walked over to the miniature library. She placed her hand on one of the shelves, shivering again as the wood proved to be even colder than the air around her. There was actually nothing that would catch her attention amongst the titles standing at her eye level; there were a lot of books on maths and physics, but she was never one for those subjects.

Anna crouched to look at the lower shelves and smiled despite herself.

_At least I'll have something to read when I'm bored. Let's see..._

She took the first book that caught her attention with the colorful, green and gold backbone and read its title; _Blood of Elves_.

_Elves mean fantasy._

She liked fantasy. Especially ones with a lot of mystical creatures, beautiful lands and even more of action and romance. It was like permission to read children's fairy tales even though she was too old for those already.

_But I've never heard of this one._

She frowned. The bad thing about starting to read a book, was that even if it proved to be really awful, Anna had to read it right to the very end. She just couldn't leave a book alone even if it was physically hurting her to read it, she couldn't. It would haunt her in her sleep until she gave up and finished the title, however much pain it would bring her. It was dangerous to start a book she'd never heard of. It might bring long hours of misery.

And long hours of misery were basically filling up her free time as of late.

"Well, I guess I could just ask her," she whispered to herself, running her hand across the cover of the book and looking at it closely. It was pretty and really detailed, but judging a book by its cover was something Anna would never do. She sighed and put it back in its place on the shelf. "Just, maybe not yet. There's a lot of _other_ things I need to ask first, the freaking book can wait."

She got back up, rubbing her cold arms as she paced around the room, taking in every small detail. There was a heart-shaped cactus on the windowsill, but it looked like Elsa had never even watered it once and the poor thing was slowly withering in agony. Beside it, there stood a tiny horse figurine; Anna picked it up, curious. Despite the small size, it was rather heavy, probably made of clay or some similar material. The paintwork was really detailed, but the paint was chipped off in a few places, revealing dark gray spots on the horse's body. When she turned the figurine in her hands, she frowned; there was no tail, just the same gray spot indicating where it had once been.

Anna put the little horse down, afraid she might break it further. She turned around and looked at her bags that were lying discarded on the floor. She sighed. It was Sunday, so she'd probably have to deal with unpacking until tomorrow. After all, she had to have easy access to her things in the morning, before getting to...

She froze.

_Getting to school?_

Was Elsa even aware that Anna had to go to school? She didn't say anything like that yesterday; then again, they didn't exactly talk that much. Surely, she had to think of something obvious like that, Weselton probably gave her a few clues as to Anna's education... but the redhead didn't have any say in the matter. She'd have to rely on the blonde's decisions.

_If there were any decisions at all. She didn't exactly strike me as a responsible person._

Anna walked over to the closet and raised her hand to the handle. She hesitated. Was she supposed to open it? Elsa told her to tell her if she needed anything- not to rummage through her stuff. But Elsa was asleep and Anna wasn't; and if she wasn't, she needed to do something to occupy herself; and if she needed to do something to occupy herself anyway, she might as well start doing the things that needed to be done.

She shrugged at her internal battle, deciding to open the door after all. Instinctively, she closed her eyes as she swung the closet open, just as if there was a monster hiding there, ready to jump at her the very moment she let the light in. Or maybe some embarrassing stuff her sister wouldn't want her to see; she blushed at the very thought.

But there was nothing at all when she opened her eyes again; literally, the shelves and racks were empty. Anna raised her head to look up; there were a few shelves above her eye-level there, completely filled with clothes. The rest of the closet must have been cleaned out recently.

_So she did prepare, after all._

With a sigh, Anna turned around to look at her bags once more. She scowled. This was the part she despised the most about going anywhere; be it on a school trip or vacation with her parents. The redhead hated unpacking with a passion. She would usually just leave the bags be and take the clothes out of them or put them in after use until it was time to go back.

But there was no going back this time. She needed to unpack these. She _needed_ to put the clothes in the closet and get used to this place.

Anna brought a hand up to her mouth as she felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes.

The sudden sound of breaking glass that came from the other side of the door made her jump in place and a quiet yelp escaped her lips. With the back of her hand, she wiped the tears from her face as she almost dashed for the door. Not paying any second thought, she swung the door open and stared into the dark hallway; she could hear the muttered swearing coming from the kitchen.

Quietly, she made her way over to the entrance, almost holding her breath for fear of being detected.

Elsa was crouching on the floor, still muttering curses as she picked the pieces of a broken glass from the floor. Milk pooled around her bare feet and the pile of shards she'd already managed to gather. From what Anna could see, the older girl probably dropped the glass while drinking. There was still a milk-stache on her upper lip.

"Are you alright?" the redhead asked on instinct as she entered the kitchen, making sure to avoid stepping on the glass shards that somehow managed to scatter all the way across the floor.

Elsa looked up at her with wide eyes, obviously surprised to hear Anna's voice so early in the morning.

"Yes." She put a hand up to stop the younger girl in her track as Anna started to bend down to help her. Elsa hissed as the index finger of her other hand slid over a particularly big piece of glass and retracted her eyes from the redhead to look down at her hand. A droplet of blood was already forming on her fingertip. Blind-picking sharp objects was not one of the brightest ideas. Though her mornings were never full of those, anyway.

Anna made a funny face, but she straightened up and pretended to look out of the window. The clouds were gathering on the horizon and it seemed like rain was inevitable. She took a step forward to the fridge, but Elsa stopped her with a hand to the redhead's knee.

"Don't," she said, looking up at her from the ground. Anna gave her an even more bewildered look, so she cleared her throat in uneasiness. "I mean, don't go in here. You might hurt yourself or something-"

"I'm _fine_." Anna gently pushed the blonde's hand away. She frowned, seeing the red mark of blood just above her knee-cap. "You're not, though."

Elsa scowled and wiped her hand on the t-shirt she was wearing.

"Just, uh... just go sit on the couch or something, I'll get you whatever you want, alright?"

Anna only stared at her with furrowed brows.

"Anna, please-"

"Alright, I'm gone, I'm gone!" the redhead stepped out of the kitchen and threw herself at one of the wooden chairs standing by the dining table. She crossed her arms on her chest and huffed in annoyance as the sound of glass being slid across the tiles filled the room again. It seemed Elsa was trying to gather a pile big enough to take it out in a single move and Anna could only hope she didn't use her hands for that; she took a tissue out of the box standing on the table and wiped the blood smeared on her leg.

The sound stopped as Elsa hissed again and a few more quiet curses could be heard.

Anna sighed. This day was not going to be good.

* * *

She didn't take a good look at the bathroom in the evening; she was a little bit too stunned with everything to pay attention to details.

Anna was sitting on the toilet as she took her surroundings in. Despite the apartment being kind of small, the bathroom was rather spacious. Enough so to fit in both a shower and a bathtub. Unlike the rest of the flat, this room was well lit and full of colours; it seemed that Elsa tried to flush all of the bright and cheerful things down the toilet, but it didn't work and they decided to lead a peaceful life here.

The floor tiles were so lightly blue it was almost white, which contrasted nicely with the deep purple rug placed in front of the bathtub. Opposite the toilet Anna was sitting on, there were a few cupboards with a built-in sink, all of them in different shades of blue - the redhead could almost imagine Elsa roaming some department store for hours just to find these exact pieces of furniture. All of the appliances were white; so were the walls, only those had icy-blue snowflakes painted on.

Anna frowned. The paintings were so tiny she didn't notice them at first; scratch that, she almost didn't notice them at all.

She pulled her panties up before getting over to the sink and looking in the mirror. She didn't look too well-

_Oh my god, I look like shit!_

-actually, she looked far worse than she was used to in the morning. Not only did her hair stick out in odd directions, there were also dark circles under her eyes and the area around her mouth and nose was red and kind of swollen. She made a disgusted face at her reflection before yanking at the silver tap. The water was freezing cold as she put her hands under the stream and splashed her cheeks and forehead. Involuntarily, Anna gasped, letting the cold inside her mouth as well.

She coughed a few times as she dried her face on a nearby emerald green towel that she silently claimed as hers.

Now, that should be better.

The redhead turned to the mirror again. She scowled.

This day was certainly not going to be good.

* * *

"Cereal?"

Elsa looked up from the book she was reading and over her bowl of milk at the sound of Anna's voice. The redhead was standing in the kitchen with her arms crossed over her chest, fully dressed and with her hair fixed in the same style as the previous evening. From what the blonde could see - that is, the part of her sister's body that wasn't obscured by the kitchen island - the younger girl was wearing a turquoise shirt with a dark gray v-neck sweater over it. The shirt had to be a long-sleeve as the turquoise fabric was covering Anna's hands as well.

"Aren't you a bit too old for that?" she said as Elsa swallowed a spoonful of her hyper-sugary breakfast.

"They don't write an age limit on the box, you know."

"Yeah, well, nobody supposed they'd _have to_," the redhead huffed. She closed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief before turning around to the fridge.

She opened it.

Elsa was staring at the redhead's back as the girl froze in front of the fridge.

"Are you okay?"

Anna closed the door slowly and turned around speechless. Elsa took another spoonful of the cereal.

The redhead walked over to the dining table wordlessly and sat down on the chair opposite the older girl. There was a bowl and a spoon waiting for her, and a bottle of milk stood a little to Elsa's left. The blonde was still reading the book, oblivious to the other girl's shocked expression.

Anna took the bottle of milk and poured some in her bowl.

"Could you pass me the box?"

Elsa, still reading and paying no attention to the younger girl, took the box of cereal sitting on the chair beside her and passed it over to the redhead. Anna eyed the happy tiger on the picture suspiciously.

"So you're in for cereal after all."

Anna moved her eyes to Elsa and tried not to cringe.

"There's _nothing_ in the fridge."

The blonde raised her brows.

"Of course there's something," she motioned her spoon towards the fridge as she struggled to remember what's inside. "There has to be at least one bottle of ketchup, a jar of mayo, strawberry jam, some bread ..."

"Don't forget the Marmite. There's _Marmite_ as well."

Elsa frowned upon hearing the sarcasm in the younger girl's voice.

"Well, I cleaned up the fridge before your arrival."

"And you decided to clean it of _food_?"

They stared at each other for a moment, Anna squinting her eyes and tapping her fingers on the wooden table. Finally, Elsa shrugged before returning to her book and breakfast. Sighing, the redhead took a handful of the cereal and poured it into her bowl.

"What are these, anyway?" she asked, looking at the box once again. She read the brand. "Frosties?"

"They're just corn flakes with sugar, I guess. They're good," Elsa spoke with her mouth full of said corn flakes, making her voice sound a bit funny. Then she frowned and looked at Anna. "Are you, uh... allergic to anything? Like peanuts, or... I don't know, something else people could be allergic to?"

"Uh, pollen. But I don't think there should be any of that in these."

She stirred the milk in her bowl, not feeling like eating the cereal at all. Last time she remembered eating something so... well, hyper-sugary sweet for breakfast was when she had still been in primary school.

Not that she didn't like sweets. She just didn't like them for breakfast. Especially after the strawberry jam she had for supper.

Elsa noticed her staring into the milk.

"I have Nutella and peanut butter in the counter, if you'd rather have that."

Anna sighed.

_I think some shopping is overdue._

* * *

When Anna got out of the bedroom, Elsa was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in her hands, watching some cartoon. The redhead walked over to the living room's entrance, holding her hands together awkwardly, not sure as to what to do with them. She noticed Elsa was munching on some candy and felt nauseous immediately; after the Frosties they had for breakfast, Anna was certain the next time she'd be eating something sweet would come in more than just a few minutes.

Then the smell of chocolate filled her nostrils.

_Alright, maybe chocolate is not _that_ sweet._

"Uhm, Elsa?" she said quietly as she approached the couch. The blonde jumped a bit in her place and turned her head around, gulping down the chocolate in her mouth. Anna raised her hand and scratched the back of her head out of nervousness when the older girl just stared at her, without saying anything. "Is it fine if I, uh... If I go out for a bit? I'd like to explore the area, or... or something."

Elsa's hand was still halfway to her mouth from the bowl of M&M's she had in her lap. And she was still staring wordlessly. The tension was almost too much for Anna to bear.

"Cause I- well, I think it would be nice to know, you know, where things are around here and maybe I could just spend some time outside or maybe- you know..."

She trailed off as she eyed the older girl's expression carefully.

_Or maybe, you know, I shouldn't. Maybe she'd like to spend some time with me, I mean- for the two of us to spend time together. After all, we are about to live in the same apartment now and we barely even know each other... oh God, I'm so rude, I should have thought better before asking something like this! Of course it's not alright to-_

"Sure."

_Oh, okay._

"Just..." this time Elsa trailed off, her eyes going up and down the younger girl's body. Anna almost felt the heat of the blush coming to her cheeks. "Just, uh, dress up a little bit more. It could be kind of windy outside."

"Oh, yeah," the redhead answered with a nervous laugh, stepping back. It was fall, after all, probably her light sweater and leggings wouldn't do outside. She looked down at her feet. "So I, uhm... I'm gonna go fetch something warmer and then... I'll be back in an hour... or two?"

"Sure."

When she looked up again, Elsa was already facing the TV, obviously done with the redhead. With a frown, Anna turned on her heels and left the room without saying anything else.

* * *

It was indeed very windy outside.

Anna was glad she had listened to the blonde and dressed up in something warmer; she even dug a scarf out from the bottom of one of her bags and it was now tied tightly around her neck and face. Her hands were hidden deep in her pockets, balled into fists to keep the warmth inside her palms as best as she could.

She had been roaming the streets for approximately half an hour now; but she had yet to find another human being.

_It's too damn early._

And it was Sunday, after all. Anna didn't expect to find a lot of people outside when they probably had a nice, warm house to stay in. A bitter snicker echoed in her head; she didn't know how to deal with Elsa, not at all.

She found out the reason for the odd numeration of the floors in their building; apparently, there was a fitness club at the ground floor and various small offices at the first. Then the numbers went up, making what should be the second floor the first floor, the third the second and so on. Truth be told, Anna had never seen a building with such an... odd configuration.

_Must be pretty hard for the mailman._

She had left the flat without a clear plan in her head; she just had to get away from the blonde for some time to think. Just sitting in the bedroom behind closed doors wasn't enough - there were too many things reminding her she was not at home, not where she was used to being, and where she desperately wanted to be to concentrate on anything. Sighing, she passed another corner and got out into a somewhat busier street; at least she thought it had to be, as there were a few cars passing every now and then.

The redhead took her phone out and glanced at the screen; the time read 6:07.

_Father would have woken up by now; he'd be bewildered to see me awake, though._

Anna shook her head to rid herself of the unwanted thoughts as she felt a single tear sliding down her cheek. She wiped it off with her sleeve, for once happy she was alone now and not in a crowd of people. What would they think of her, a girl starting to cry in the middle of the street with no visible reason...

She needed a distraction; she needed to do something that didn't require _thinking_.

With another sigh, Anna tapped the screen a few times more before she got to her favourite game. She smiled faintly underneath her scarf, though it was more of a way to convince herself that everything was fine, as she saw the familiar red jelly jumping up the platforms on its never ending way to heaven; or at least that's what Anna liked to think it was, instead of pointlessly spending hours trying to rid her mind of any thoughts to achieve some abstract record.

_Would be hard to top the yesterday's score... that was a really long flight._

Anna let the game suck her in as she walked on auto-pilot.

* * *

Elsa was still sitting on the couch a good half an hour after Anna had left; the M&M's were long gone, but the blonde didn't mind it that much. She was playing with the colorful band-aids on her wounded fingers, something she would get scolded for all the time when she was still a kid.

She frowned. Memories of her childhood weren't welcome during the weekend.

_Or at all._

The blonde glanced towards her phone as she heard the buzzing of a new text coming. It was lying on the coffee table, two feet away from Elsa, which meant it was out of reach unless she moved a little bit. Whatever the message was, it could surely wait until Elsa would eventually have to stand up and go to the bathroom.

She took a long sip of milk from the glass she was holding.

And then she had to fight herself not to spit it all out.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed, jumping up to her feet, almost spilling her drink and breaking another glass as she set it down on the table with a loud crash.

Elsa ran over to the window and scanned the area visible from it, then she moved to the balcony and did the same. There were no redheads in sight; actually, there was not a single soul walking the streets.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck..."

She put a hand to her forehead, breathing in big gulps of air. There was no chance she could run out of the apartment building and catch her; Anna could be literally anywhere at this point.

_Idiot, idiot, you stupid fucking idiot!_

Elsa glanced over to the kitchen counter, where the SIM card she was supposed to give her sister lied atop a box of chocolates.

* * *

Anna was so sucked in by her game that she didn't even notice the environment changing around her.

She was entering an area full of terraced houses, leaving the apartment buildings behind quite some time ago. People were starting to appear on the streets; an occasional garbage man, small shop owners, some poor souls lost on the Sunday morning. Anna passed them all without really paying attention, mind blank and focused solely on the jumping jelly on her screen; which was really hard, considering she was still walking.

A delicious smell hit her nostrils, forcing her to stop dead in her tracks; she scowled as she saw the jelly falling off a platform. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze to the bakery to her right.

"Mmm, now that's something tasty," she murmured to herself as she took in the scent of freshly baked buns and bread. The redhead walked over to the bakery's window and her jaw almost broke free from its hinges; she could swear she had never seen so many types of baked goods in her entire life, not to mention in one place. Wherever she set her eyes, there were different colorful buns covered with fruits, icing, nuts and chocolate, sesame seeds and some things Anna didn't even know the name of. Deeper in the shop she could see two middle-aged females preparing the bakery for this day's opening, setting trays of freshly baked rolls and bread down on the shelves, arranging small cookies and cupcakes in their boxes.

The redhead's stomach growled and she cursed silently; she didn't take any money with her.

"Are you looking for anything in particular, young lady?"

Anna almost jumped out of her clothes as she heard the voice behind her back. With a deep crimson blush she spun around to look down on a short, elderly woman bearing the warmest of smiles Anna had ever seen.

"Nothing's better than a fresh bun on a Sunday morning, hm?" she asked with a heavy, Slavian accent. Anna noticed the woman was wearing a white apron under her unzipped jacket, with the bakery's logo printed in the middle.

As the redhead opened her mouth to answer, the woman grasped Anna's freezing hand with her warm one, pulling her gently in the entrance's direction.

"Come, come," she said, motioning with her other hand for the girl to follow. "My daughters have just taken the rolls out of the furnace."

The warmth inside of the bakery was a nice contrast to the cold outside; Anna immediately felt the tingling sensation in her cheeks as she removed the scarf tied around her mouth. The women behind the counter stopped briefly to greet their mother and smile at Anna before they got back to arranging the cakes and various types of colorful icing-covered cupcakes.

"Now, what would you like?" the woman asked, turning towards Anna again as she took her jacket off and folded it on a nearby table. The redhead gulped as the woman eyed her carefully. "I don't think I have seen you before, Sweetie."

"I just moved in here," she blurted out far too quickly, overwhelmed with the woman's friendliness. "And, uhm, thank you, but I don't have any mo-"

"Yoo hoo!"

Anna's head snapped to the side to look at the door. The largest man she had ever seen in her entire life was standing in the doorway, sweeping dead leaves off his jacket with the back of his hand. Out of the corner of her eye the redhead could see the elderly woman's face brightening up even more as she smiled at the man, who instantly almost ran over to her and bent down to kiss both of her cheeks.

"A very fresh day we have," he said with an accent Anna couldn't quite describe. When the man turned to face her she realized she had been staring at him from the moment he walked in and she switched her attention to the floor, feeling the heat of embarrassment on the back of her neck.

"And a new customer, too! So early!" Anna could swear that she saw the man jump up a little bit. He held his enormous hand out towards her with a smile. "I am Oaken," he said as they shook hands so vividly Anna was almost lifted up from the ground. "And this lovely lady here is Alina, my business partner."

Alina blushed a little bit and gently patted Oaken's arm.

"I'm- my name is Anna."

"A pretty redhead," Oaken commented, playing with his own strawberry blonde mustache. "Aren't redheads the prettiest, Alina?"

"Now, now, you calm down," she answered with a laugh, before she turned her attention to Anna again. "Now what did you say you wanted, Darling?"

"I, uhm..." Anna felt the embarrassment move from the back of her neck to her face. Absent-mindedly, she started to play with the tip of her left braid, biting her lower lip in nervousness. She looked back at the floor. "I was- I was just looking at things, I don't really have any money with me."

The redhead took a quick glance at the bakers, expecting their friendly expressions to disappear. Instead, they just continued to stare at her with warm smiles.

"She just moved in," Alina explained to Oaken in a matter-of-fact tone and he nodded, putting a hand to his chin thoughtfully.

"Well then, Anna should surely try the best chocolate buns in a fifty miles radius, ya?"

_Oh god, these people aren't real. They're too good to exist._

"But I-"

"No no no," Oaken put a hand up to silence her. "This is a must, no refusing. It's on the house."

Alina disappeared behind the counter for a few seconds, only to come back with a bun wrapped in pink paper. The woman gave it to Anna, who backed away ever so slightly. She was just supposed to take a stroll around, not to leech on people.

"But I couldn't, really-"

Suddenly, their smiles faded and got replaced by sad, beaten puppy faces. Anna gulped.

_Way to go, Anna. You've just offended the nicest people on the planet._

She quickly took the offered bun from Alina and took a big bite, nodding her head to indicate that she enjoyed it. As she chewed, the rich, dark chocolate taste exploded in her mouth with the slightest underline of cherry and brandy, something she wouldn't expect in a chocolate bun but found it nice nonetheless. She closed her eyes in delight and let her taste buds take over as the creamy texture of the warm filling slid against her tongue, leaving a faint taste of vanilla and something else that was just too _ambrosious_ to name behind. She opened her eyes again to look at the big man towering above her.

"Oh my god," she gasped as she gulped the bun down and was finally able to speak again.

"Do you like it?" Oaken looked at her carefully, as if waiting for an acclaimed critic's opinion.

"Did I _like_ it?" Anna took another, smaller bite, humming softly as the taste filled her mouth again. "This is... it's pure heaven!"

Oaken clapped his massive hands together and this time Anna was sure he jumped up a little bit. She heard one of the women shout something from the back of the shop - Anna didn't even realize they'd left - and, with a nod in the redhead's direction Alina was gone behind the wooden door that probably led to the baking area. Oaken took his jacket off, revealing an exact copy of Alina's apron. Well, maybe this one was slightly bigger.

"Thank you, really," Anna said as she sat down on a chair by the small table. Oaken moved behind the counter.

"Well, it's only our pleasure to welcome you in the city, ya?"

Anna smiled at the big man.

"So, am I the first customer this day?" she asked, wrapping the bun back in its paper to save it for later. The big man let out a small giggle.

"Only one crazy enough to be out before the shops even open is you, dear."

Suddenly, the door opened with a jingle of the bell tied above it and a young, blonde man entered. He looked around the bakery, half of his face hidden by a scarf covering his mouth. He took it off and walked over to the counter, fighting with the zipper of his jacket's pocket. Oaken shrugged in Anna's direction as she motioned towards the guy; something was clearly pissing him off this cold morning.

"I'll take four breads, thirty-six rolls and twelve bags of garlic bread-sticks," the blonde man said angrily as he finally managed to get the wallet out of his pocket. He looked around a bit until his eyes settled on one spot. "Oh, and a carrot cupcake."

"No carrot cupcakes yet, fellow," Oaken answered with an unfaltering smile, even though Anna was sure he'd feel offended by the younger man's tone. "Still in the oven, won't be out until twenty minutes."

"Huh?" Anna could almost imagine the guy's frown. "Alright, nevermind; how about cranberry muffins?"

"No chance, girls haven't brought them out yet. Would that be all then?"

"What? Oh, _come on_, Oaken!" The blonde man threw his hands up, almost letting go of the wallet he was still holding. "Can't you just go in there and get me one muffin?"

"No no no," he answered, shaking his head. "Not a chance, fellow, the women's kingdom, ya? I'm the counter-guy."

The younger man grumbled something in response, but neither Anna nor Oaken understood him.

"Fine," he sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. "Just get me the things I asked for, okay?"

"Very well, just hold on a few seconds," Oaken chirped as he stood up from the tiny stool he was sitting on and started gathering all the rolls the blonde asked for.

While he was waiting, the younger man turned towards Anna and she quickly pretended to be looking outside the window.

* * *

Elsa was standing on the balcony finishing her second cigarette.

"Good job, Elsa," she muttered to herself, leaning against the cold railing. "You managed to fuck things up in less than a single day. That's the new academy record."

She put her forehead against the freezing metal and intertwined her fingers at the back of her head. She knew taking care of her sister wouldn't be easy; never even hoped it would be any less than challenging.

_But to lose her the very second day? Really?_

The blonde straightened back up as she stared at the mostly empty streets, looking for any flash of red hair.

_Then again, what would I do from here? Shout to her? She wouldn't even fucking hear me if I screamed at the top of my lungs._

She threw the cigarette butt over the railing and followed it with her eyes for a few seconds, before she finally lost sight of it.

* * *

Anna was sitting on a bench in a park, enjoying the cool weather now that she had something nutrient to warm her up.

Oaken ended up giving her another bun - a vanilla pudding one, this time - on her way as a reminder to come back to the bakery anytime she felt like having the best buns in a fifty miles radius. Anna smiled to herself as she looked at the little paper-wrapped package in her lap.

She didn't even realise how much she missed being around people; the month she had spent at Weselton's she hadn't been going out too much. She skipped school a lot for the first couple of weeks after the accident, and she only went the last few times before leaving the States because the old man _forced_ her to. Anna wasn't sure she would be able to live on after what happened; she didn't know what to do anymore, but isolating herself wasn't really helping.

She felt angry with herself now; the bakery was a nice distraction, but now that she sat alone she let herself think too much again. She chewed on her lip and tried to focus on a duck swimming in the pond nearby; to erase all the thoughts from her mind again.

Then it came to her; the warm feeling of falling asleep as she realized she'd only slept a couple of hours last night. The bench seemed very comfortable all of a sudden, the wind almost soothing as she felt her eyelids close despite herself. A bird chirped in the distance and it was like a lullaby to her ears, her mind already beginning to shut down. The girl didn't even fight it; she was too tired to think about resisting the urge, to care about the fact that she was in a park- in a place she didn't know full of strangers that could possibly harm her one way or another.

So Anna let her chin fall to her chest as her body went limp and sleep crept its way to take over her consciousness.

Everything felt so surreal, yet right; the birds sitting in the trees, singing their melancholic songs, the wind playing in her hair, the cars passing ever so quietly somewhere off in the distance, the big, warm muzzle of a giant dog in her lap...

Anna's eyelids snapped open as she jumped in surprise. A pair of watery, brown eyes stared back at her, their owner panting hot breath at the girl's thighs and wiggling its tail so fast Anna could almost feel the gusts of wind caused with its movement.

"Sven!" she heard a man's voice coming from down the lane and the dog turned his head around to look at the guy, but he - at least Anna guessed Sven was a boy's name - still didn't leave the girl. She raised her hand up tentatively to pet him and he immediately went into a sniffing fit, his nose leaving a wet trail on Anna's palm.

The guy ran over to them and bent down, panting. Anna realized he must have been chasing the dog for some time now, and Sven looked more than happy about it as he circled his owner a few times before returning to the redhead and practically forced his head under Anna's extended hand. She patted him gently.

"I'm sorry for him, he's just happy to be out and..." the guy trailed off as he took a closer look at the redhead in front of him. She seemed familiar for some reason. "Hey, weren't you at Oaken's earlier?"

Anna's eyes met his and she tried to stand up awkwardly, but the huge dog trying to get as much of his body as possible into her lap successively stopped her from moving at all.

"_Yeeeeah_," she answered slowly as she squinted her eyes at the blonde man. An image popped inside her head and her face immediately lit up. "You're the thirty-six rolls guy, I remember you."

A blush spread across his face until it reached his ears.

"Yeah, uh, I've got a big family." He coughed and scratched the tip of his nose to hide the embarrassment, but it didn't work. "I'm usually Oaken's first customer of the day, so he's got it all prepared for me... well, except for those darn muffins, but I swear he's doing it on purpose."

Anna let out a giggle at the man's irritated voice and he sent her a sheepish grin.

"Anyway, name's Kristoff," he held a hand out to her. The redhead shook it with her left, her right still occupied with Kristoff's dog. "It's only fair to introduce myself now that we share the same bakery."

"Anna," she said, still grinning. "And yeah, I guess I'll come back at least a few times; those chocolate buns they make are amazing."

"Tell me about it. My little brothers always beg me to bring them one of those, but I can't let them have so many sweets..." he trailed off again, as if realising he said something stupid. He coughed again. "So, uh, you live somewhere around here, Anna?"

"Yeah," she answered, but as the word left her mouth she took a good look around the park; she didn't remember getting here, much less how she even got to the bakery. Her whole memory of the walk she had was that of a bouncing jelly. "At least, uh, I think so?"

"You think so?" He asked, sitting down on the bench beside her. "Wait, you mean you're not sure where you _live_?"

"Uh, I moved in yesterday." It was Anna's turn to turn red. "Somewhere around here, then I took a walk and I wasn't exactly looking at where I was going, and I wind up in the bakery and then... I just went on until I found this bench and sat on it, but I'm not even sure which direction the bakery is now."

"It's just there," Kristoff motioned down the alley, throwing a huge stick Sven had just brought to him. "I can walk you back to Oaken's if that's any help." He looked at her suspiciously with squinted eyes. "You do at least remember your address, _right_?"

She smiled sheepishly in answer.

"Oh, Lord," the blonde put a hand to his forehead in the same manner he did at the bakery. Sven ran up to him again, laying what seemed to be a rather large branch in both Kristoff's and Anna's laps.

* * *

Elsa felt anxious. She felt very, very, _very_ anxious.

Watching cartoons to kill the time just didn't do any good; the blonde didn't even follow the plot, so she wasn't exactly sure as to what was going on with the show right now. She had tried eating another bowl of cereal before deciding that either she was too stressed to eat or the milk had expired. Or both.

Elsa was waiting. She was waiting for Anna to return home safely or for the clock to turn to half past eight.

Finally, the second thing happened.

The blonde stopped the game she was playing on her phone and dialed a number. She needed to talk to somebody.

"Come on, Kris, pick it up," she whispered as the second signal went off. "_Come on_."

* * *

Deciding it was the worst idea to just leave the lost girl in the park, Kristoff had spent the past half an hour talking to the redhead, who seemed to get to like Sven very much. He couldn't blame her, though; the dog was acting like a huge, hairy, happy angel with her. They were standing by the pond now, watching the ducks swim by as Anna was playing fetch with Sven, throwing him sticks in the water and laughing as he came towards them to shake it off. The blonde caught himself stealing occasional glimpses at the girl; even though he had realized he'd seen her at Oaken's, there was still this strange familiarity to her.

Suddenly, Kristoff felt his butt vibrating. He took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

"Hang on, I need to pick it up," he told the girl and she nodded, too occupied with Sven to even care about his owner.

Kristoff walked a few feet away from them and took a deep breath before hitting the green button to answer.

"Elsa?" he asked, his voice confused and worried. "Is something wrong?"

* * *

Elsa sat down on the kitchen counter, staring out the window.

"God, Kris, I was scared you wouldn't pick up," the female blonde sighed, but she smiled anyway at hearing the familiar voice. "I screwed up so badly. I need your comforting words."

* * *

"You've got my comforting words," he grinned and heard the bitter chuckle in answer. "But seriously, Els, what's wrong? Did you forget about a project again or something?"

Sven ran past him with the speed of lighting, and a redheaded blur followed.

* * *

"Nah, not that." She held the phone with her shoulder as she lit up a cigarette. "I think-"

"Wait, hold on a second, was that a _lighter_ I heard? You were supposed to try to quit smoking."

Elsa groaned.

"I'm _stressed_, alright?" she said angrily. "Kris, I think I might have lost my sister."

* * *

Kristoff frowned.

"What do you mean, lost?" He took the stick Sven offered him and threw it in the pond again. "You didn't _kill_ her, did you?"

"No, dumbass, of course not." Kristoff could hear the desperation in her voice. "I let her walk out of the door a few hours ago, she said she'd be back in an hour, she's not back, obviously, I didn't even give her the SIM card, nor taken her current phone number, nor given her mine, she's away and I don't know where she went. Help me."

"Aww, come on, Els, she's seventeen, right?" he groaned, the slightest bit of irritation audible in his voice. "I'm sure she's fine and all, she probably remembers where you live and will be ba-"

He stopped suddenly, looking at Anna, who was trying to yank a stick free from Sven's jaws. Kristoff ran a hand down his face. No, this couldn't be her; things like _these_ only happened in cheesy movies.

She _did_ seem familiar, though. The girl had Elsa's distinctive cheekbones

"Els? Is her name Anna by any chance?"

* * *

Elsa hit her head on the cupboard as she tried to reach a mug to make herself some strong coffee.

"Yeah," she gasped out, massaging the sore spot with her band-aided fingers. This day was becoming increasingly dangerous to her. "Did I tell you that?"

* * *

Kristoff sighed, as he stopped Sven by catching on to his collar.

"I just had this feeling," he sighed as Anna approached him. He stared at her carefully and she looked back at him in confusion.

"Listen, _Elsa_," the man said loud enough for the redhead to hear him. The spark in her eyes upon hearing the older girl's name only further ensured the blonde man that what he thought was right. "There's this girl here that you might just want to pick up. We're at the park near my house."

* * *

Elsa dropped her cigarette in the sink, running towards the corridor to pick a thick hoodie from one of the racks.

"I love you," she said quickly as she put her sneakers on. "Keep her there. I owe you a beer, no, a _couple_ of beers and a pack of biscuits for Sven! I'll be there in five."

* * *

And indeed, Elsa got to the park in five minutes; no more, no less.

Anna and Kristoff were sitting on a bench with Sven running in large circles around them when the blonde ran up to them, her hair put in her usual, messy braid and cheeks red from running against the wind. She had only an oversized, dark gray hoodie and black jeans on, but she didn't seem bothered by the cold at all.

"Anna," she gasped, bending down to place her hands on her knees and panting. "Kristoff, you're a _god_."

"I know, I know." The young man leant back against the bench and crossed his hands at the back of his head. His eyes darted between the two girls, taking in their similar facial features. "Geez, you two seemed familiar in my imagination, but now that I see you... you could almost pass as twins if I didn't know better."

The girls stared at each other at that, but as their eyes met they both switched attention to anything else, blushing furiously.

"So, anyway," Kristoff continued, their strange behaviour not phasing him at all. "I found this one at Oaken's at opening time. She flirted her way into receiving sweet buns for free-"

"I so didn't!" If it was possible at all, Anna's blush had become a deeper shade of red. She turned towards the older guy, sending him an enraged glare. "I didn't even ask for-"

"How did you get there?"

Both of them snapped their heads to look at Elsa, whose confusion was written all over her face.

"Well, I left the apartment building and turned left," Anna started to explain as she stared at the sky in deep thought, her left index finger touching her lower lip. "And then I... I kind of wound up there. I don't know."

She left out the bit about playing the game and not paying attention to the world around her; Elsa seemed slightly mad at her already.

"She's impossible," Kristoff said with a smile, shaking his head in disbelief. "When I ran into her here at the park, she didn't even know where she _lives_, you know?"

"Yeah, I can imagine," Elsa sighed, looking sternly at the younger girl, who was staring at her own shoes now.

"So, uh, I got kinda lost," the redhead continued with a sheepish smile. "But then I met Kristoff and Sven, and after a while it turned out he knew you... Kristoff, I mean, not Sven, though you probably know Sven as well, you know, Kristoff's dog? The massive Great Dane... so yeah, uh, we played a bit and all, then it turned up he's your frie-"

"Wait." Elsa put a hand up to stop Anna's word vomit, and the younger girl shut up immediately. Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to calm down. "You got lost. In a city you've never been to. Not knowing my address, phone number, anything, possibly not even my surname. So you meet a stranger and decide to _play_ with his dog?"

"I _know_ your surname," Anna huffed. Of course she would remember her _own_ surname, and as far as she knew Elsa never changed hers. "And yeah, Kristoff was really _nice_ to me, so what's wrong-"

"He could have been a _nice rapist_! No offence," she said to Kristoff, who was just staring back at her with raised brows and arms folded across his wide chest. Elsa sighed. "You just... don't go around making friends like this, Anna."

Silence fell upon the trio as they all stared off into different directions. Elsa bit her lip in nervousness, popping the joints of her fingers in her pockets.

"Alright," the female blonde said after a while and two pairs of eyes moved to look at her. "Let's, uh... let's just get home, okay? I get it you're over with your walk now."

"Yeah," Anna answered in a quiet voice, standing up to join Elsa at her side. She turned towards Kristoff. "It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too." The man stood up as well to shake her hand, before repeating the gesture with Elsa.

"You wanna come over?" the blonde girl asked him, though it was more than obvious that she wasn't exactly looking forward to having visitors right now.

Kristoff shook his head, but he sent them both a warm smile.

"Nah, I have to get back home soon," he said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb to where Anna could guess the man lived. "My brothers are waiting for me to take them to soccer training in an hour."

* * *

"I'm sorry."

Anna was standing in the corridor, looking at Elsa as the older girl made her way to the kitchen. They hadn't talked at all throughout the whole ride home; it turned out Elsa had gotten to the park by car, and Anna had actually covered quite some distance as she was walking aimlessly earlier this morning.

The older girl closed the cupboard she had opened before and sighed.

"It's okay, I guess it's more of my fault anyway," she muttered as she walked over to the counter. "I said you could go out, and to be honest, I wasn't really even listening to you."

Elsa cringed as she realized how awful it had to sound, but the redhead only stared at her with an unreadable expression. The older girl reached for something behind her back, triggering Anna's curiosity.

"I forgot to give you these," Elsa muttered again, as she got closer to the younger girl to give her the box she was holding.

Anna took it carefully and looked at the lid.

"Chocolates?" she asked with the slightest bit of doubt. These were chocolates, there was no questioning the fact; toffee, cream, cherry and brandy filled, to be exact. She wasn't sure why Elsa would give them to her, though.

"And a new SIM card for you." The older girl pointed at a piece of plastic Anna didn't notice before. There was a post-it card attached to it and the redhead picked it up to read what was written on the yellow piece of paper.

"That's my number. I already have yours, the new one."

Anna nodded and put the card in her jeans' pocket. Her mind was still focused on the box of chocolates.

"I was supposed to give you all of this yesterday, but I was- there was so much going on that I forgot to," Elsa managed to bite her tongue before she admitted how stressed she was yesterday. "And then it was kind of late, so I thought I'd deal with that first thing in the morning... but then the morning was kind of frantic as well."

It sounded stupid in her head, and it sounded even worse when it left her mouth.

"So, yeah," the blonde said, nodding her head. God, she was acting like a scared schoolgirl in front of an upper classman. "Uh, welcome home, Anna."

The blonde extended her hand out awkwardly, as if she had just signed a deal with corporate Anna. The younger girl took it tentatively and gave a light shake, and...

Elsa was surprised to see the tears streaming down the redhead's cheeks.

"I'm sorry," with a whimper, Anna let go of Elsa and attempted to wipe the tears with the back of her right hand as she still held the box of chocolates in her left. "I'm just- I... I'm gonna..."

She pointed in the bedroom's direction before she practically ran towards it, shutting the door close behind her, leaving a very confused Elsa standing in the middle of the kitchen.

* * *

Anna didn't come out of the bedroom until dinner.

Truth be told, she had been exhausted from walking all those miles after sleeping so little in the night; the redhead collapsed on Elsa's bed and cried until she passed out in a dreamless sleep.

It was around seven in the afternoon when she entered the living room and Elsa was sitting by the large table with a laptop, tapping the keyboard so rapidly Anna mistook it for the sound of rain beating against the window. When the redhead cleared her throat, Elsa looked up at her immediately, her face surprised, almost as if she was not expecting Anna to ever leave the room at all. The blonde had glasses on, which were slipping off her nose; her braid was even more messy than before, and her lips were a little reddened from biting on her lower lip, something Anna noticed her older sister was doing a lot when she wasn't thinking.

_Elsa looks younger than she should; wait, I mean, not that she's old or anything- she's kinda cute like this._

Anna felt a wave of internal embarrassment as the words echoed in her mind.

"Are you ok?" the blonde asked, putting Anna out of her thoughts.

The younger girl wondered briefly; Elsa looked genuinely worried about her, most likely still confused after Anna's outburst in the morning. The redhead nodded, but she did it slowly, as if she wasn't even sure herself. There were so many emotions battling in her head right now that she didn't even know what expression to take on her face.

Elsa gave her an awkward little smile as she shut the laptop down and set it aside, motioning for Anna to take the seat opposite her, just like in the morning. She stood up herself and walked into the kitchen, while Anna sat down where she was asked to.

"What do you want to drink?" the blonde asked, taking two glasses out of the cupboard above the sink.

"I don't know." Anna rested her elbows on the table before setting her chin in a nestle formed with her hands. She frowned as she realized she hadn't had anything to drink since early this morning, and that's only if you counted the milk from the cereal. "What do you have?"

"Tea, coffee," Elsa started as she held her fingers out for the countdown. "Milk, Coke, lime soda, uh... water, but it's from the tap, so I wouldn't be so sure about it..."

Anna groaned inwardly. She had sort of expected Elsa wouldn't have any fruit juice.

"Lime soda sounds fine," she said with a sigh that she hoped the blonde didn't hear.

Elsa filled one of the glasses with a sickly-greenish, semi-transparent sparkling liquid that made Anna's thirst go away; the blonde motioned for her to stay where she was seated as she brought the beverage to her.

"Thank you," Anna said quietly as she stared at the glass for a moment until the primal need to drink won her internal battle and she took a big gulp of the drink; it was sickeningly sweet, but other than that it didn't taste as bad as it looked. She could even feel the faint taste of lime on the tip of her tongue.

"So, umm..." Elsa started as she watched the girl drink. "I was thinking about what you've said this morning; I mean, _the fridge_. Perhaps we should go shopping in the week, so you could get some things you like..."

"Sure," she answered with a smile, looking up at the older girl leaning against the kitchen counter. "And I'm sorry, it was kind of rude."

"Just a little bit," Elsa smirked. "I didn't know what you'd want, so I didn't want to buy unnecessary things."

Anna maintained her smile, though inside she was frowning.

_Unnecessary things?_

"Uhm," was all she could say to that. She decided to change the subject before they could delve further into this one. "So, what's for dinner?"

"I ordered some Chinese takeout," Elsa walked over to the fridge to retrieve two white cardboard boxes and two sets of chopsticks. "I hope you're not vegan or anything, because one is chicken and the other's beef."

"No, it's fine," Anna was happy enough with the prospect of a half-decent meal to be picky. "Uhm, I'll take chicken, I guess? I've never had it."

Elsa slammed the microwave door shut and turned around with a bewildered expression.

"You've never had _chicken_?"

"No, no, I meant Chinese takeout," Anna laughed a bit, but if Elsa's expression had changed at all it only became more surprised.

"What the hell did they do to you," she muttered quietly to herself as she turned around again to program the microwave.

But Anna heard it, and the smile faltered from her lips. She didn't feel like eating anymore.

* * *

The silence that accompanied them through the whole meal was far more than uncomfortable; it was almost unbearable for Anna.

"Elsa?"

The blonde was busy with trying to fit all of the garbage in the trash bin, so she didn't hear Anna at first. The redhead tried to clear her throat a couple of times to get her attention.

"Yes?" she answered finally, straightening up from where she was crouching so suddenly her face almost came in contact with Anna's on the way. The tips of their noses literally touched for a brief second and they both jumped back a bit, blushing.

"Uh..." Anna struggled to remember what she wanted to say, and then caught the sight of the microwave clock in the corner of her eye. "Tomorrow's Monday, _right_?"

"Yeah, I _suppose_ so. It _was_ Sunday today, after all."

Anna sighed; Elsa didn't get the hint. She'd have to try a more direct approach.

"What about school?"

"Oh, right, school!" Elsa slapped her forehead with a clap so loud it made Anna jump in surprise. "Sorry, I forget to tell you all the important things; you just have to remind me of the necessities, okay?"

Anna nodded.

"I signed you up for Walt Disney's High School... it's kind of far from here, but it's more civilised than the ones nearby. Well, uh, at least I hope so..." She seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. "Anyway, I'll drive you there in the morning. Umm, you don't have any books yet, because they didn't want to give me the _list_ for some reason."

Anna sighed, as she stared at the floor. Nervousness ran over her as she realised she was going to meet so many new people there, and she knew instantly she wasn't ready to go yet. School seemed like a normal subject when she had thought about it earlier, but now that it'd all been said out loud, she was literally scared of the morning.

Tomorrow was going to be even _more_ shitty than today.

"Hey." Elsa made a motion as if she wanted to touch her shoulder, but changed her mind halfway through. "I- I know how it feels to be the new kid, but you'll blend in fine in no time, right?"

"I hope so," she said as she gazed up, giving the older girl a faint smile. Elsa was really good at reading her mind all of a sudden.

"Just please, dress in something warm, it's going to be colder tomorrow. I can make you some sandwiches in the morning if you want me to."

"I guess I'll just take some lunch money, you know... we haven't gone _shopping_ yet and all..."

"Right."

They stood in front of each other with a three foot gap between them, eyes darting all around the kitchen, trying to avoid setting on the other girl; Anna was awkwardly shifting from one leg to another as she noticed Elsa was chewing her lip again.

"I'll, uh..." Anna started, feeling the tension twisting her guts. "I'll go take a shower and sleep, I'm kinda tired."

"Yeah, you should rest before tomorrow." Elsa nodded her head a couple of times looking straight into Anna's eyes before she decided the floor was really interesting all of a sudden. "Do you want me to wake you up?"

"No, I'll be fine with my alarm clock."

"Alright." Elsa set off in the direction of her laptop and Anna had this feeling the older girl was not going to go to sleep anytime soon. "Just be ready around six, we'll have to leave early."

"Sure."

It was far too awkward to even think of saying goodnight.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for reading this chapter. Please leave a review if you liked it (or not) and if you have any ideas/suggestions/requests... or anything. I will try to keep the updates coming more often from now on!

**darkdragon**, yes, Elsa is 24 in this story.


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